The Syracuse Crunch couldn’t overcome a three goal deficit against the Eastern Conference leading St. John’s IceCaps, falling 4-3 tonight at the Mile One Centre.

Nicolas Deschamps opened the scoring at the 7:48 mark of the first period. Deschamps was able to jam a Kyle Palmieri rebound past IceCaps goaltender David Aebischer to give the Crunch a 1-0 lead, which they carried into the first intermission.

St. John’s got on the scoreboard with a power-play goal from Andrew Gagnon to knot the game 1-1, 5:47 into the second period. Forty-two seconds later Kenndal McArdle potted a second power-play goal, followed 21 seconds later by an even-strength goal from Patrice Cormier to total three goals in the span of 1:03 and bring the score to 3-1 IceCaps.

Zach Redmond added the IceCaps third power-play tally with 7:40 remaining in the second stanza to extend the IceCaps lead 4-1. The second period came to an early end as crews worked to clear a pane of broken glass; 2:06 was added to the start of the third period.

Palmieri cut the Crunch deficit to two with his 14th goal of the season. Palmieri’s wrister, assisted by Mathieu Carle, made it 4-2, 6:25 into the third period.

Brandon McMillan made it 4-3 with 3:44 remaining in regulation but the Crunch could not find the equalizer before time expired.

The Crunch and IceCaps will clash again 6 p.m. Wednesday 7 at the Mile One Centre.

Notes: Crunch defenseman Bryan Rodney missed the game with a rib injury...Goalie Iiro Tarkki made his 10th start in the Crunch’s last 11 games…Nick Bonino was recalled to Anaheim and Jeff Deslauriers was returned to the Crunch earlier this afternoon…Tonight was only the second time the Crunch have lost in regulation when scoring the game’s first goal…Assistant Coach Marty Wilford played for St. John’s during the 2001-02 season